Article Type: Research Article

 

Article Citation: Dr. Vipin Chandran K P, and Dr. Sandhya P. (2020). TRANSITION FROM MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: A CLOSE SCRUTINY FROM INDIA. International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH, 8(5), 78-88. https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v8.i5.2020.72

 

Received Date: 11 May 2020

 

Accepted Date: 27 May 2020

 

Keywords:

Poverty

Sustainable Development

MDGs

SDGs
ABSTRACT

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gained a lot of interest due to the partial success of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in eradication of poverty and human development. India has taken a lot of initiatives to meet the targets for the same and have achieved progress in this regard. The MDGs were particularly helpful in communicating a clear purpose of development aid to mobilize public support. The SDGs seek to address not only the root causes of poverty but also the universal need for sustained development to provide a life of dignity to all. The main objectives of the present study are; to examine the performance of Millennium Development goals (MDGs) and make a comparison with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in India; to compare the component wise progress and policy initiatives of MDGs and SDGs in India; and to analyze the current progress of SDGs in India and also make a comparison among Indian states using the report of SDG India Index 2019. The data has collected from various official publications of UN, Government of India, NITI Aayog, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The present study finds that SDG proposals will ensure momentum generated by MDGs is carried through to 2030 to end deprivations. India’s achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will require a focus on the acceleration of inclusive economic growth; guaranteed access to comprehensive social services; vast investment in basic infrastructure and women’s empowerment. The present study is an attempt to analyze these issues in India.

1.     INTRODUCTION

 

India is home to one-sixth of the planet’s humanity, which makes the country a key player in ensuring the prosperity and sustainability of the planet and its people. India has raised the levels of prosperity for its people manifold in the recent past. However, challenges remain in many areas including health, nutrition, basic infrastructure, quality of education among others. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gained a lot of interest due to the partial success of millennium development goals (MDGs) in eradication of poverty and human development. India has taken a lot of initiatives to meet the targets for the same and have achieved progress in this regard. The MDGs were particularly helpful in communicating a clear purpose of development aid to mobilize public support. In contrast, (SDGs) are a global agenda for sustainable development. The SDGs seek to address not only the root causes of poverty but also the universal need for sustained development to provide a life of dignity to all. The SDGs are most comprehensive list of global goals integrating the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development.

The MDGs focused on poverty - understood as meeting basic needs - and its alleviation. This was a new and a narrow conception of development. For decades, development had focused on enlarging the productive capacity of economies to make possible improved living standards of people. The eight MDGs and 21 targets were limited to ending extreme poverty, thus reconceptualising development. In contrast, the SDGs are incorporates ending poverty as a core objective, but the 17 goals and 169 targets set out a broader agenda that includes environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The broader agenda of the SDGs reflects not only a shift in priorities but a reversal of the MDG approach to goal setting. Departing from the principle that global goals should be short and memorable, the SDGs include 17 goals and 169 targets. The MDGs communicated a simplified concept of development as meeting basic needs, stripped of the challenges of inclusions and sustainability, and remained silent on the need to reform institutions. They framed development discourses and debates in this narrow vision.  The SDGs also reverse another MDG approach, to set a global goal that is also to be achieved by all countries, neglecting national contexts, and against which governments would be held accountable.

 

2.     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY AND DATA SOURCES

 

The main objectives of the study are as follows;

1)     to examine the performance of Millennium development goals (MDGs) and make a comparison with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in India.

2)     to compare the component wise progress and policy initiatives of MDGs and SDGs in India.

3)     To analyze the current progress of SDGs in India and make a comparison among Indian states using the data sources of SDG India Index 2019.

 

United Nations has clearly laid down MDGs and SDGs and each MDG and SDG has several metrics. For every MDG’s and SDG’s metrics based on the availability of data for the different states in India. The data has collected from various official publications of UN, government of India, NITI Aayog, ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

 

3.     DISCUSSION

 

In this section will discuss the progress of millennium development in India in detail, important programme initiatives addressed millennium development goals (MDGs), transition from MDGs to SDGs and also discuss the latest SDG India Index report 2019.

 

3.1. PROGRESS OF MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS) IN INDIA

 

India is a signatory to the historic Millennium Declaration adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000, a global compact to free millions across the world from the bondages of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, poor health and other deprivations. While factors specific to each of the MDGs are important for achievement of the targets, there are several key ‘drivers’ that affect the performance of all the MDGs. Some of these crosscutting factors were not explicitly factored into the MDG goal and indicator structure but their roles are now being recognized as crucial to the success of the MDGs and so are being integrated within the proposed SDGs. Important five key drivers are influencing the performance and attainment of MDGs. These are [1] broad-based and employment-creating economic growth; [2] adequate allocation of resources towards the social sectors and basic services; [3] strong design and effective implementation of MDG related programmes; [4] creating basic infrastructure for better access and delivery of MDG related services; and [5] women’s empowerment.

MDGs designed and adopted during the Millennium Summit of the UN in 2000 have successes in mobilizing public and political support for development action  on a range of issues such as reducing poverty, malnutrition, maternal and child mortality, and increasing access to water and sanitation. It has also been identified that some of the goals and targets have not received adequate support, which include quality of education, environmental degradation, climate change, natural resource depletion, economic growth, good governance, and security. Though the achievements look impressive in some of the societies, the progress has been uneven and the poorest in some vulnerable communities.  Gender issues and inappropriate human rights approach remained a barrier to fulfilling the MDGs. Enormous disparities in wealth, power, opportunity, and rising urbanization were found to be the key challenges for development. In addition, more frequent and intense natural disasters, spiralling conflict, terrorism, and related humanitarian crises lead to forced displacement of people, and socio-economic and public health problems worsen the list of challenges of our time undermining the ability of the communities to achieve sustainable development.

 

Table 1: progress report of Millennium Development Goals, targets and indicators

Source: Achieving Millennium Development Goals Target Year Factsheet – India, Government of India, 2017.

 

The MDGs target 1 was focused on halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day and Target 2 was focused on halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Proportion of population below the national poverty line (PHCR) in India has been declined both in rural and urban areas meeting the MDG target well ahead. A decreasing trend has been observed in the depth of poverty (Poverty Gap Ratio is the gap by which mean consumption of the poor below poverty line falls short of the poverty line) in rural as well as urban areas during the period of 2004-12. There is an overall decline in the share of the poorest 20% in the national consumption during 1993-2012 and also slow progress in reducing the proportion of underweight children below 3 years in India.

Target 3 was ensure that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary education. Yet to achieve the universal primary education and youth literacy has shown significant improvement during 1991- 2011 in India.  Target 4 was focused on eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015. Gender parity is achieved and is now in favour of females in primary and secondary education and the disparity in higher secondary education is set to disappear soon and also literacy rate among female youth has improved and is close to the status of male youth in India. The Share of women in wage employment is far behind the MDG target and the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament is 11.2% (2016), whereas the MDGs had aimed for gender equality. Target 5 was concerned with to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the Under-five Mortality Rate. Under Five Mortality has reduced significantly during 1990-2015 and the status in 2015 is very near to the MDG target in India. Though, Infant Mortality showed significant decline during 1990-2015, it is still lagging behind the MDG target and the proportion of one-year old (12-23 months) children immunized against measles is at 81.1.1% in 2015-16 (NFHS-4). Target 6 was focused to reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the Maternal Mortality Ratio. During 1990-2013, considerable progress has achieved in reducing maternal mortality ratio, but the status during 2011-13 is far behind the MDG target and the percentage of births attended by a doctor/nurse/LHV/ANM/ other health personnel in 2015-16 is 81.4% (NFHS-4) in India.

Target 7 was focused on have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and Target 8 was also focused on have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases Trend reversal in prevalence of HIV/AIDS among pregnant women has achieved and the declining trend is continuing and there is an overall declining trend in Malaria API with fluctuations in between. Trend reversal has been achieved in incidence and prevalence of TB in India and the declining trend is continuing. Target 9 was concerned with integrate the Principles of Sustainable Development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources and Target 10 was focused on halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Target 18 was concerned within co-operation with the private sector; make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication. Overall teledensity (Number of Telephones per 100 population) shows substantial progress in the last few years in India.

 

3.2. PROGRAMME INITIATIVES ADDRESSED MDGS

 

India's review cites growth as an important instrument for achieving Goal 1 on poverty. While growth is important, it is by no means always certain that it will penetrate to the poor for their poverty removal. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as a pro-poor strategy aimed at reducing the rigours of poverty by providing unskilled employment and also building the rural asset base is not a full-fledged strategy for bringing people out of poverty. Regular income-generation opportunities need to be provided, and challenges of health and nutrition need to be addressed to reduce the possibility of the poor slipping back into the poverty trap. India's Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Mid-Day Meal (MDM) programme, and the National Food Security Act, 2013 are important initiatives taken up by the Government of India to address problems of food security and to some extent, to nutritional deficits. However, in the context of the goal of ‘sustainable agriculture’, in order to ensure long-term food security, and also reduce rural poverty, a major challenge lies in agriculture reforms, and improving India's natural resource base of land, water, and bio-diversity. The issue of interconnectedness of the SDGs is very well represented in the case of the sustainability of land resources for agriculture and incomes for poverty reduction. India is still very much a land of subsistence agriculture and small holdings.

While the creation of rural infrastructure, improving the supply of rural credit, and promoting skills and entrepreneurship is necessary for the purpose, the vastness of the scale of interventions is clearly beyond the reach of governments alone and needs the close involvement of the private sector. It also needs to be integrated with the urbanization strategy, since creation of non-farm employment is clearly an adjunct to urbanization. The urbanization programmes of Smart Cities, AMRUT, and ‘Rurbanization’ need to be given an appropriate pro-poor bias and integrated more closely with the strategy for poverty reduction. India needs to take urgent actions towards implementing the goals and targets by analyzing the successes and failures in relation to the MDGs and designing an inclusive governance architecture that promotes an implementation framework that keeps as the central focus: (i) the crucial importance of inter-linkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals; (ii) that no one must be left behind; (iii) that the Goals and Targets are to be met for all segments of society; and (iv) the need to endeavour to reach the furthest behind first, as specified in the 2030 Development Agenda.

 

Table 2: Important Programme initiatives addressed MDGs

Source: Achieving Millennium Development Goals Target Year Factsheet – India, Government of India, 2017.

 

3.3. TRANSITION FROM MDGS TO SDGS

 

Indian states that performed better on the MDGs focused on the following “drivers”: the main drivers of the MDGs are accelerated broad-based and employment creating economic growth. This is because these are closely related to MDGs performance due to indirect impacts on governments’ expanding revenues, and direct impacts on increased incomes for poor households to invest in nutrition, health and education. Government more spending on health and education in per capita terms, which have made their human development surpass other states; and to promoted good governance and effective delivery of public services. Achievement of MDGs extended basic infrastructure networks (roads, transport, electricity); and to promoted gender equality and empowerment of women by reducing fertility, population growth, and child mortality; Improved nutrition, hygiene and health of households, children’s performance in schools, allocation of household resources, and economic growth in general. Recognizing their critical role, some of these overall “drivers” of MDGs performance, such as inclusive growth, employment creation and infrastructure, have been explicitly incorporated in the 2015 SDGs agenda of India.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reached their December 2015 deadline, and the world adopted a new set of transformative and universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of ‘The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. The Agenda is an inter-governmental agreement that is meant to guide national development efforts over 15 years, from 2016 until 2030. India's achievements on MDGs was good in parts. Significant progress was made in some areas, such as reducing poverty by half, which was met ahead of time. However, India fell short on the target for reducing hunger. India has made progress in providing clean drinking water, but access to sanitation facilities remains inadequate. Control of deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis has been achieved. India's forest cover increased, but its carbon dioxide emissions and energy intensity remain areas of concern. At the national level, several programmes on poverty reduction, health, education, drinking water, and sanitation were aligned with the MDGs and budgetary allocations increased. However, implementation in the various states has been uneven, with some of the already better-off states doing much better.

Actions that could have further enabled and enhanced the success in meeting the MDGs are: (i) increasing focus on planning and coordinated implementation of the cross-cutting issues, such as poverty and hunger and environment and health; (ii) formulating dedicated national- and state-level strategies and plans particularly for states lagging behind in development; including capacity building of lagging states and their local governance systems; and (iii) providing adequate focus on quantitative aspects of the MDGs. With the arrival of SDGs, a larger development agenda is being globally addressed. In India, where poverty reduction, economic growth and since the 1970s, environmental protection as well, have long been key elements of national development planning, India has several national policies and programmes associated with each goal and target and most are generally well aligned with the SDGs.

 

Table 3: Broad mapping from MDGs to SDGs

Source: Achieving Millennium Development Goals Target Year Factsheet – India, Government of India, 2017.

 

 

 

3.4. STATEWISE PERFORMANCE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

 

SDG India index aims to measure India and its state’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. NITI Aayog has released the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Index for the year 2019-20 has been constructed spanning across 16 out of 17 SDGs with a qualitative assessment on SDG 17. SDG India Index measures their progress on the outcomes of the interventions and schemes of the Government of India and also this index is intended to provide a holistic vie on the social, economic and environmental status of the country and its states and union territories.

 

Table 4: Sustainable Development Goal wise top state/UTs, 2019-20

Source: SDG India Index & Dashboard 2019-20, NITI Aayog.

 

Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have topped the list of states on the sustainable development goals index 2019-20.  While Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim have shown maximum improvement, states like Gujarat have not shown any improvement vis-a-vis first ranking in 2018.  In 2019-20 report, 14 states have fallen in the overall ranking in the index compared to last year. India's composite score improved from 57 in 2018 to 60 in 2019-20 with major success in water and sanitation, power and industry. However, nutrition and gender equality continue to be problem areas for India, requiring more focused approach from the government. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are ranked at the bottom of the index.

 

Table 5: Top 10 SDG Index States in India

Source: SDG India Index & Dashboard 2019-20, NITI Aayog.

           

Kerala has the top rank with a score of 70 followed by Himachal Pradesh with 69 points. Further, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana shared the third spot with each state scoring 67 on the Index. Bihar has emerged as the worst performer with the lowest score of 50. Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh are also some of the worst-performing states on the index. Uttar Pradesh has shown maximum improvement followed by Odisha and Sikkim. Chandigarh has topped the list with the score of 70 followed by Puducherry with 66.

 

Table 6: bottom 5 SDG index States in India

Source: SDG India Index & Dashboard 2019-20, NITI Aayog.

 

4.     CONCLUDING REMARKS

 

India has taken a lot of initiatives to meet the targets for the MDGs and have achieved progress in this regard. SDGs benefit from the valuable lessons learned from MDGs. After independence, India is still engaged in a struggle for freedom from many deprivations: poverty, hunger, illiteracy, ill health, disease, and many others which the MDGs sought to overcome, but many remain unfulfilled. The SDG proposals will ensure momentum generated by MDGs is carried through to 2030 to end deprivations. These also carry forward the unfinished agenda of MDGs for continuity and sustain the momentum generated while addressing the additional challenges of inclusiveness, equity, and urbanization and further strengthening global partnership by including CSOs and private sector. SDGs have one comprehensive goal emphasizing wellbeing and healthy living including NCDs; SDGs will include a vision of building vibrant and systematic partnerships with private sector to achieve sustainable development. The recent initiatives of India are positive signs of India’s active momentum and strategic priorities towards an inclusive and sustainable development agenda.

 

SOURCES OF FUNDING

 

None.

 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

 

None.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

 

None. 

 

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